The present invention is directed to an air dissipator apparatus for connection to the outlet of an air jet by which filamentary tow is drawn from a supply source and is puddled into a container positioned beneath the air jet.
The yarn ends from a row of individual yarn spinning cabinets, such as from melt spinning cabinets, are usually combined and puddled in uniform back-and-forth manner into stainless steel containers to be later withdrawn and subsequently processed as by drafting, etc.
Yarn puddlers or yarn piddlers, as variously called, take many different forms. The Morehead et al patent, U.S. Pat. No. 3,281,913, which issued Nov. 1, 1966, discloses one form of puddling apparatus connected to an air jet and by which a rapidly moving yarn bundle is packaged in a container in a crosslaid or crisscross manner. The apparatus shown, over which the present invention constitutes an improved and different arrangement, is disclosed in the patent as being used for packaging into containers any type bundle, such as yarns, rovings, tows and the like. The apparatus includes a series of longitudinally extending spring fingers spaced apart in a circular array to form what is referred to in the patent as a "temporary storage chamber". The tow is forced under light pressure from the air jet into the temporary storage chamber while the air, which is entrained in the tow and is giving the tow kinetic energy for propulsion, is dissipated at an angle to the yarn flow through the tow in the storage chamber and through the spaced-apart fingers. The tow then falls substantially under its own weight to the tow bed within the container. The spring finger array is also called in industry a "spring bustle".
The tow bed, which is formed within the container directly beneath the air jet, is normally undisturbed because the air is being dissipated laterally through the tow and through the spaced-apart fingers. When the yarn movement to the air jet breaks down for whatever reason, the air jet then is unobstructed by the temporary storage of yarn within the spring bustle and the air from the jet directly hits the tow bed and disturbs its orderly arrangement. One problem arising when the tow bed is disturbed in this manner is that it makes it difficult for the operator to find the end of the yarn in the container. This is one of the problems that is eliminated by the dissipator apparatus of the present invention.
When the tow is puddled from the spring bustle, the yarn tends to have entanglements more closely spaced than when the tow is puddled from the apparatus of the present invention. This is due to the momentary hold-up of the yarn within the spring bustle or temporary storage chamber as the yarn piles up or is stuffed within the spring bustle and the compressed air from the air jet dissipates through the tow and through the spaced-apart spring fingers. It is theorized that since fewer entanglements occur in the yarn puddled from the apparatus of the present invention, drafting tension is distributed more evenly over the filaments during subsequent processing steps in which drafting occurs. This results in fewer end breaks during the drafting process, and hence results in increased processing yield.